Business success comes from more than your products or expertise—it also comes from the mission, values, and energy that your business emanates. If this sounds a little “woo woo,” hear me out.

When it comes to the professionals we hire or the stores where we shop for personal needs, we tend to prefer to give our time, money, and business to companies and people who make us feel good. Whether it’s our hairstylist or our grocery store, we prefer to do business with people and places that feel inherently “right” to us, and there’s an energetic reason for what feels “right” and what doesn’t.

In this blog, we explore how energetic congruence between you and your business can help you attract quality clients and customers, and lead to greater satisfaction in your life as an entrepreneur.

Being congruent with your business refers to the harmony between your personal values, professional identity, and the services you provide. It's about being authentic, transparent, and aligned with the principles that drive your work. It means practicing what your business preaches.

For example, if you run an interior design business that centers on minimalism, do you practice minimalism in your own life or is your home full of clutter? If you operate an advertising firm that helps your clients communicate clearly through their ads, do you follow your own advice in your company’s internal communications? Being in congruence with your business means that you authentically believe in the processes and services that you offer your clients and use the same methods, philosophies, and services in your personal and business life. 

When you’re in congruence with your business, you’ll have the ability to anticipate how your clients will feel at different points throughout your service process, enabling you to predict and respond to your client’s needs before they even know what they are. You’ll be able to speak from your own experience about the benefits of the service that you’re selling, rather than simply being the “salesperson.” 

If you like your services (and you should!), you’ll emit authentic positive energy that your clients will automatically detect and internalize. By contrast, if you preach the benefits of your services but don’t follow your business philosophy in your own life, the energy you give off when talking about your services will feel inauthentic, or “off” to your clients.

In today’s world, clients and customers are increasingly drawn to authenticity. When you can authentically speak about your business, it creates a magnetic force that attracts clients who resonate with your values, your services, and your brand, ultimately bringing you higher-quality clients and stronger client relationships.

Expressing authenticity goes beyond showcasing expertise; it involves sharing your story, motivations, and the underlying principles that guide you and your company. Be genuine in presenting what you believe in as a business professional through your website, social media presence, and client interactions.

When customers feel authenticity in your communications, they are more likely to choose your services over competitors who may not convey the same level of openness.

Personally being in congruence with your business is essential, but don’t let it end there. Congruence within your entire business will create more widely felt authentic energy for your clients. Hire team members who believe in the philosophy of your business and continue to train and mentor them on your services and the values they provide.

Offer your team members a chance to try out your services – whether you offer them a free service, a discounted rate, or simply a closer look into the different roles in your company and how they all work together toward your company’s common goal.  

You also want to embody your values in your internal communication and team interactions. When your organization is not operating internally in alignment with its brand values or mission, employees may experience a lack of trust in leadership and become disengaged. This disengagement can be toxic for your organization and impact staff turnover and productivity, and negatively impact the energy of customer-facing teams.

A cohesive team that shares a collective vision and is in congruence with your business’s values and services enhances the overall client experience and contributes to an authentic energy that feels “right.”

When it’s essential to keep a step ahead of your competition, congruence emerges as a powerful force that not only attracts clients but also sustains long-term satisfaction in your business. Authenticity, philosophical alignment, and a well-defined professional and personal identity contribute to the magnetic appeal of your company, drawing in clients who resonate with your values and who are a joy to serve.

If you want to elevate your business systems and your business congruence, give us a call. We can make sure your business stands on a strong foundation of Legal, Insurance, Financial, and Tax systems, and help your business generate the kind of authentic energy that attracts life-long clients.

Click the button below to schedule your complimentary 15-minute call now.

This article is a service of a Personal Family Lawyer®. We offer a complete spectrum of legal services for businesses and can help you make the wisest choices with your business throughout life and in the event of your death. We also offer a LIFT Business Breakthrough Session™, which includes a review of all the legal, financial, and tax systems you need for your business. Call us today to schedule.

The content is sourced from Personal Family Lawyer® for use by Personal Family Lawyer® firms, a source believed to be providing accurate information. This material was created for educational and informational purposes only and is not intended as ERISA, tax, legal, or investment advice. If you are seeking legal advice specific to your needs, such advice services must be obtained on your own separate from this educational material.

We offer a complete spectrum of legal services for business owners and can help you make the wisest choices on how to deal with your business throughout life and in the event of your death. We also offer you a LIFT Your Life And Business Planning Session, which includes a review of all the legal, insurance, financial, and tax systems you need for your business. Schedule online today.

As a small business owner, it's essential to consider potential legal pitfalls that come with managing a workforce. While payroll and workplace policies may seem like less consequential aspects of your business, team member complaints, and workplace violations are one of the top areas where small business owners find themselves in hot water.

Taking a proactive approach by auditing your processes and improving your systems can help you ensure a fair and compliant work environment that steers clear of legal trouble.

To make sure your business is on a straight path and that your team members are happy and focused, make sure you aren’t making any of these simple employment mistakes.

Minimum wage issues, overtime, holiday pay, and comp hours can complicate your payroll if you have W-2 employees. As a result, miscalculating pay due to your employees can have legal consequences and harm your reputation.

To avoid compensation issues, make sure your payment policies are clear and concise. If you have limitations to working hours, (for instance, you don’t provide holiday pay or overtime) make these policies extremely clear from the very beginning.

Bold or capitalize any particular restrictions in your employment agreement and handbook, and remind team members of the policy whenever the question of working hours comes up. By being forthcoming with your policies and keeping them top of mind for your team employees will temper expectations and help avoid payroll confusion.

Where possible, hire your team members as salaried employees or contractors on a flat-fee basis rather than as hourly employees. This won’t be possible for every type of role, but if you can, hiring someone as a contractor will help you get the work you need without having to worry about overtime pay or hourly time tracking.

Misclassifying an employee as an independent contractor might seem like a convenient shortcut, but beware—the consequences can be costly!

Hiring independent contractors to perform work for you has benefits over hiring W-2 employees. Your business won’t have payroll tax or an obligation to provide contractors with employee benefits. But only certain team members can be treated as independent contractors based on the level of freedom they have to perform their work.

As tempting as it may be to save on taxes and employee benefits, the misclassification of a team member can lead to hefty fines, back taxes, and legal headaches. Plus, it's not just about the money—misclassified workers may be denied essential protections like overtime pay and workers' compensation.

The best approach? Ensure you properly classify your workers from the start and ensure that every independent contractor has a signed agreement, and that you are paying your independent contractors to their own business entity, as that can provide a safe harbor of sorts. If you do not have a standard independent contractor agreement that you have signed by every independent contractor working for you, contact us to create a template you can use.

At-will employment is a concept recognized by nearly all 50 states. An at-will arrangement means that either party has the flexibility to terminate the employment relationship at any time, whether the person hired isn’t a good fit after all or the team member decides to take a different opportunity somewhere else.

But here's the thing. If you do decide to terminate the relationship, always document the reasons behind the termination in writing to add a layer of protection to your business.

At-will working relationships are the most flexible work terms you can have, but that doesn’t protect you from accusations of discriminatory or retaliatory firing from a disgruntled ex-employee. To avoid this, always document your reasons for the termination in writing.

Record any incidents that the team member had before being let go, such as showing up late or failing to complete work on time. Even if the reason for the termination isn’t based on performance, such as simply needing to downsize your team to fit your new budget, document it and make a note of issues affecting hiring in the company as a whole in your company meetings and expense reviews.

Getting into the habit of documenting your hiring and firing decisions, as well as the company’s condition as a whole will help protect you and your business from any firing accusations that might arise in the future.

Hiring an independent contractor is a great way to outsource work for your company, but if you aren’t including provisions in your contractor agreements to protect your ownership rights of the work they create, you risk losing ownership of the materials they create for you.

To make sure your intellectual property such as proprietary processes, marketing materials, and artwork belong to your company and not to the contractor themselves, it’s essential to include “work for hire” provisions in your contractor agreement. You also need to include confidentiality agreements and may even want to have your contractors sign a nondisclosure agreement to prevent information about your company from being disclosed to the public.

Including these simple but often overlooked provisions protects your company’s materials from being repurposed or sold to another company or third party by the contractor and ensures you have recourse if a contractor discloses confidential information about your company.

As a business owner, proactively addressing potential employment issues is key to protecting your business's reputation and keeping your workforce satisfied and productive. But, making sure your business complies with different employment laws and regulations can feel overwhelming.

That's where I come in as your Personal Family Lawyer®. To make sure every area of your business is set up for success, I work with you to audit your legal, insurance, financial, and tax systems through my LIFT Business Breakthrough Session™. During this session, we'll review your current practices, address any concerns, and create a tailored legal strategy that safeguards your business while promoting a positive work environment.

Don't let employment mistakes hinder your business's success. Schedule a LIFT Business Breakthrough Session today and let's pave the way for your business to grow and thrive.

To get started, schedule a complimentary discovery call by clicking the button below.

This article is a service of a Personal Family Lawyer®. We offer a complete spectrum of legal services for businesses and can help you make the wisest choices with your business throughout life and in the event of your death. We also offer a LIFT Business Breakthrough Session™, which includes a review of all the legal, financial, and tax systems you need for your business. Call us today to schedule.

The content is sourced from Personal Family Lawyer® for use by Personal Family Lawyer® firms, a source believed to be providing accurate information. This material was created for educational and informational purposes only and is not intended as ERISA, tax, legal, or investment advice. If you are seeking legal advice specific to your needs, such advice services must be obtained on your own separate from this educational material.

We offer a complete spectrum of legal services for business owners and can help you make the wisest choices on how to deal with your business throughout life and in the event of your death. We also offer you a LIFT Your Life And Business Planning Session, which includes a review of all the legal, insurance, financial, and tax systems you need for your business. Schedule online today.

If you dream of one day retiring from your business, selling it, or leaving your company to your family, there are essential planning steps to take care of today, no matter how far away you think that time may be. Even if you are just starting, beginning with the end in mind will set your business up for a lifetime of success and leave your heirs, clients or customers, and team with a valuable asset when you are gone.

Perhaps surprisingly, properly planning for what would happen to your business upon your death or incapacity is one of the most important things you can do for your company’s growth and success, now and in the future.

By structuring your business affairs with the end in mind, you will naturally make better choices for everything from entity type to hiring and training to pricing and delivery of your services and products.

Using a few basic estate planning strategies to make sure your business survives your incapacity or death can also set your business up for success from the start. Although you should consult with us, as your Personal Family Lawyer® with family business planning focus, to take you through our unique planning process and determine the specific planning vehicles that are right for your particular business and family situation, the following estate planning tools are essential for nearly all business owners.

Putting your company in a customized and thoughtfully prepared Revocable Living Trust is one of the best ways to ensure your business’s continued success upon your eventual death or in the event of your incapacity, as long as that Trust is updated over time, and your business assets are correctly titled in the name of your Trust.

A living Trust is an agreement you make with a Trustee to hold title to the shares or membership interests of your business. A Trust agreement is then used to document what will happen to your business when you can no longer run it yourself due to incapacity or death.

Unlike when you use a Will to transfer assets at your death, assets properly held by the Trust agreement do not go through the court process of probate. Instead, those assets are promptly transferred to the person, or persons, of your choice in the event of your death or incapacity. In this way, a Trust allows for the smooth transition of control of your company, without the time, expense, and potential conflict associated with probate or, in the event of your incapacity before death, a guardianship or conservatorship.

Using a Trust agreement, you choose the individual(s) you want to run your company in your absence, whether that absence is permanent (your death) or merely temporary (your incapacity). Plus, Trusts are not open to the public, so your company’s affairs and its assets would remain private, and transfer of ownership can occur in your lawyer’s office, not a courtroom.

If you share ownership of your business with one or more other people, you’ll want to establish a buy-sell agreement. A buy-sell agreement ensures that upon certain conditions—such as your death or permanent incapacity—the other owners can purchase your business shares or stipulate that your shares will pass to your heirs.

An adequately prepared buy-sell agreement can prevent your family members from getting stuck owning a business they don’t want and can’t sell. And it also protects your surviving partners from being forced to deal with new owners they never planned on. The key to ensuring a buy-sell agreement works is to make sure it’s funded, usually with life insurance, and that it’s customized to meet the needs of your unique partnership.

One-size fits all buy-sell agreements, sometimes provided by life insurance professionals, are insufficient to adequately protect your family's interest in the event of your death. Instead, your buy-sell agreement should be customized specifically for you, your business partner or partners, and your respective families' needs.

Unless your business generates significant revenue—and will continue to do so upon your death—that income might not be enough to support the ongoing operation after your death and financially provide for your family. By purchasing and properly structuring your life insurance, you can offer your family, team, and clients a financial safety net. In contrast, your loved ones finalize your affairs, and your successor assumes company control.

If your business has multiple owners, you can pair life insurance policies on each partner with your buy-sell agreement. By doing so, your remaining partners can buy out your shares at a previously agreed-upon price, and the life insurance can help pay for the buyout without leaving the business bankrupt.

If you hope to pass control of your company to a loved one or team member, you’ll need to create a comprehensive business succession plan to ensure the company doesn’t fall apart when you die. Beyond merely naming your successor, a proper succession provides stability and security by allowing you to lay out explicit instructions for how the company should be run once you are no longer around.

From specifying how ownership should be transferred and providing rules for the compensation of partners and team members to establishing dispute resolution procedures, an effective succession plan can provide the new owner with a detailed roadmap for your company’s continued success and growth.

Estate planning is every bit—if not more—essential to your company’s (and family’s) continued survival and success as any other issue facing your business. If you’ve yet to put your estate plan in place, consult with us, your Personal Family Lawyer® with family business planning experts today to help you take care of this vital responsibility.

And even if you have an existing plan, you should have us review it to ensure you’ve covered all of your bases and that your plan has been appropriately updated. We have a 50-point assessment to look at your plan, which needs to be updated to consider changes in your life, assets, and the law. These actions will not only help shield your company and family from unforeseen tragedy but also give you the peace of mind needed to take your business to the next level. Schedule your appointment today to get your planning handled.

This article is a service of a Personal Family Lawyer®. We offer a complete spectrum of legal services for businesses and can help you make the wisest choices on how to deal with your business throughout life and in the event of your death. We also offer a LIFT Start-Up Session™ or a LIFT Audit for an ongoing business, which includes a review of all the legal, financial, and tax systems you need for your business. Call us today to schedule.

The content is sourced from Personal Family Lawyer® for use by Personal Family Lawyer firms, a source believed to be providing accurate information. This material was created for educational and informational purposes only and is not intended as ERISA, tax, legal, or investment advice. If you are seeking legal advice specific to your needs, such advice services must be obtained on your own separate from this educational material.

We offer a complete spectrum of legal services for business owners and can help you make the wisest choices on how to deal with your business throughout life and in the event of your death. We also offer you a LIFT Your Life And Business Planning Session, which includes a review of all the legal, insurance, financial, and tax systems you need for your business. Schedule online today.